Chapter 228: What's that
They came into view, three people who looked to be human, but Azaroth couldn't be so sure because what were humans doing here? They were dressed in black leather armor and carried no visible weapons, but from the attack earlier, Azaroth didn't think that they needed any.
The one in front was an older man with brown eyes and steel-gray hair. His eyes passed over Azaroth and the team casually. "What do we have here?" he murmured, his voice rough and gruff. It was as if he spoke with a constant grunt.
Another one spoke, his voice light like the man who had spoken earlier. "Wow, so we are not the only ones doing the harvesting this time. It's been a while since we've met others here."
Azaroth stiffened. Met others? Harvesting? So these people knew the purpose of this place.
But there wasn't much time to figure anything else out because the monsters roared, and sharp wind blades blasted towards them, twisting and tearing through anything in their path as they rushed forward.
How will they react? Azaroth thought.
He watched as white light washed over the strangers just seconds before the wind slammed into...something that sucked it in.
It was the biggest coffin they had ever seen, and it covered the three strangers with translucent light. It disappeared the moment the attack was absorbed. The gruff guy and the woman stepped forward, energy crackling around them.
Azaroth used his senses to probe them, and his face tightened. They were just inches above the Acolyte rank, just like the drakes, but that only meant they were strong. Very strong compared to the team. Azaroth might be just as strong if he used his chaos core together with his fire one. No, he'd be stronger than them then, but he had no fire essence left.
The woman raised her hand, where white light gathered, and the man stepped in behind her, his hand on her shoulder.
Then whoosh!
They were gone.
Azaroth blinked. That wasn't speed. It was teleportation.
They appeared beside the stone monster, and the woman slapped it with her hand before it could react. A big white translucent coffin snapped into place around it, pulsing softly, and the monster was frozen inside.
"What the..." Stallus muttered.
They disappeared again, this time appearing beside the wind drake, which reacted fast, twisting out of the way and blasting out wind, but her hand had already touched it, freezing it inside the coffin too. Like an image trapped inside a photograph.
They repeated the same thing with the remaining two drakes, and after that the woman lifted her hands, making the coffins float above the clearing.
"Let's just leave the drakes locked away here. My power will linger for a while," she said.
The man grunted and raised his right hand, where dark gray energy gathered, spinning into a ball with shapes floating inside. He raised his brows at her.
"Maybe if it were possible to bring them away with us, but alas, we don't have such privilege. Their bodies, on the other hand..."
He extended his right hand, and the woman brought one of the drakes closer to them. He threw the dark gray energy, and it floated forward slowly, crackling with power. Immediately it got close, the woman released her power on the drake, and it was free.
The monster stared in surprise, confused about what was happening, but before it could make any move, the orb of flickering dark gray energy reached it and exploded, pushing space forward and then inward, sucking everything into itself.
There was a sharp crack, a fleshy crunch, as the monster's chest was ripped apart, collapsing inward and twisting. The monster was lifted into a twisted spiral of itself.
Azaroth stared as the body of the monster slammed into the ground with a thud. The upper body of the monster had been twisted together, flesh and bones alike. What remained was nothing more than a wrung cloth.
Azaroth took a deep breath. This man had used just one spell to kill a drake that had taken the four of them to defeat. This was power. Raw destructive power. And what type of technique was that? They were all using techniques that Azaroth wasn't familiar with.
The man turned wordlessly, and the woman brought another drake forward. Just like before, he threw the flickering energy that twisted and tore the monster apart. It was dead before it reached the ground.
And like that, he killed all the remaining drakes.
Azaroth watched it all, and he prepared himself, gripping his chaos core for what he was sure was coming. His team gathered around him, faces weary.
The three strangers turned to them, and the gruff man raised his brows.
"Well? What's the three of you doing in the drakes' territory? You all just opened your third gate, right?"
Azaroth let the silence linger before he stepped forward.
"I don't know what you're talking about with a third gate. But what are you guys doing here?"
The woman scowled.
"Maybe we shouldn't have rescued them, Dole. They're ungrateful shits."
The man smiled thinly.
"Even they have their usefulness."
Azaroth didn't appreciate the way the man was talking to them, even less that smile, as if he could crush them if he so wished. The most problematic thing was that he probably could.
Dole shrugged.
"Well, I'll answer your question. We are doing some work around here, and we heard fighting." He pointed to the west. "We thought it might be one of our allies, but it's absolutely not. What we found instead were some kids fighting drakes."
Stallus and the others bristled at the use of the word kids, but they didn't say anything. Azaroth let the words wash over him, and then he picked out what he could.
"I believe this is not a crypt then?"
Dole frowned.
"Crypt? What's that?"
Stallus answered.
"You know, a place where you can go in and kill monsters, or the monsters will overrun the world?"
Dole shared a look with the woman.
"Crypt? Or do you mean dungeon?"